Out Of The Shadows
by painted-on-silence
Summary: I told myself, 'Only a few more years then I'm free of Nathan' but I wasn't sure I truly would be. No doubt as soon as we leave Hogwarts he'd snatch me away and lock me away somewhere. Hell, he'd do that now if he was able to. There was no escape for me.
1. Chapter 1 Potions

_Out of the Shadows_

_~ Chapter 1 - Potions ~_

"You aren't _going_Kaela!" Nathan spat in my face, pushing me even closer into my prison against the wall.

"Professor Slughorn asked me personally," I said quietly, my words falling on deaf ears. He'd never let me go. Ever.

I could feel his wand digging into my stomach; a silent threat. Arguing is pointless. I would not be going to the 'Slug-Club' meeting. My wand was in easy reach but I did not dare go for it. I did not feel like being hexed today.

Closing my eyes, I sighed and nodded. I didn't want any trouble; I didn't want people asking questions. Not when we were already in the middle of the corridor with so many curious eyes lingering on us, pressed up against the wall.

I couldn't believe I was a Gryffindor. When I got sorted, I was so sure the hat had made a mistake. Gryffindor house is well known for bravery, daring, nerve, and chivalry – i.e. everything I was not. I was the weak link, the cowardly lion. And somehow Nathan was stuck here with me.

I'd bat away questions from my roommates with ease, should they come asking. It was something I'd done for the years Nathan and I had been together at Hogwarts.

I kept telling myself, 'Only a few more years then I'd be free, of Nathan, of everything…' but I wasn't sure I truly would be. No doubt as soon as we leave Hogwarts he'd snatch me away from life and lock me away somewhere. Hell, he'd do that now if he was able.

No.

I was stuck with him.

Now until forever.

His forever.

'Yay me…' I thought sarcastically. But better me than any other girl. I don't mind. At least he's not hurting anyone else. I guess I kind of deserved it, with what I did to my family.

"Move along to your next classes please!" Professor McGonagall had appeared from the classroom we just vacated from and was trying to hurry the remaining Gryffindors along, "that includes you too Miss Davies, Mr Piper!"

Nathan turned and gave her a simpering sickly sweet smile that made most girls swoon. It had certainly made me swoon. At first. Now it makes my heart clench and tears spring to my eyes. I could never escape.

He was definitely handsome; in the ways that psychopaths like him always are. With chestnut hair that was carefully mussed into a quiff and deep brown eyes that could melt hearts with a single glance, not to mention his tall, lean Quidditch-player's body and sculpted jawline, it was no wonder why most girls (me included) had a thing for him. Girls that possessed curves and popularity and beauty; things that I didn't.

But he chose me. It was something the rest of the Hogwarts – including myself – were still trying to figure out.

"Sure thing professor!" he said, cheerfully.

McGonagall gave him a stern look and the stiff smile she was famous for.

He grabbed hold of my arm, too tightly, and began pulling me down the hall, "Don't want to be late for class, now do we Kae?" His voice held none of the cheeriness it'd held a moment ago; it turned cold and harsh. I nodded, keeping my eyes down. I occasionally stumbled over my robes but did not fall – thank Merlin.

"Mr Potter! You and Mr Weasley had better get a move on or I'll give you a month's worth of detentions," McGonagall warned though her voice not holding true to her words; in fact she sounded rather fond.

"Sorry Minnie but Freddie needs to go to the little wizard's room. You know him… he's got the bladder of a baby bowtruckle," said a smooth joking voice getting quieter and quieter as I was moved away.

My eyes turned and caught a glimpse of an unruly dark head of hair. Oh Merlin.

James Potter.

I wrenched my eyes away and groaned internally.

Son of the Chosen One, the school heartthrob/practical joker, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and one of the most attractive boys I'd ever seen. Nice too, from what I've heard from the other sixth year Gryffindor girls. Nathan, by default, hated his guts. James definitely rivalled Nathan in the look-

I slammed straight into the hard form of Nathan. He'd stopped yanking me along and I realised we were at the top of the dungeon steps. His lips were on mine suddenly and I gasped. He took the opportunity to force his tongue in. His hands captured my neck, pulling me even closer to him.

Abruptly, he broke off and I was left breathless.

"Have fun in potions," he said; tossing a smile my way over his shoulders, his eyes glinting dangerously, as he strode off down the corridor.

My back hit the wall, threatening to slide down it as I let the world disappear behind my lids.

To anyone who saw it, they might mistake it as passion. It was not. It was a violent kiss. It was him shouting to everyone that I was his. Nobody else's. Thank Merlin nobody was aroun-

"Nice PDA there," a voice came from behind me.

Oh _crap_.

I shot round to see none other than James Potter walking out of the shadows of the corridor nearby staring at me with an obscure look I couldn't quite decipher.

My cheeks burned with embarrassment and my eyes dropped to the floor.

Merlin's beard, he was looking at me.

With his beautiful hazel-brown eyes, so similar to Nathan's yet so different; Nathan's were cold and hard and angry. His swam with emotions and his thoughts. Oh, what I would give to know what he thought about me!

The small smile I'd watched gather at his lips fell and my heart collapsed inside.

Wait. I shouldn't be thinking any thoughts like that. I had a boyfriend... a boyfriend that would kill me if he knew I was speaking to anyone he didn't tell me to, let alone the one he hated more than anyone...

No sign of the joker now, he said, "Hey, are you ok?" He reached out and tried to touch my arm.

I flinched.

James looked hurt but retracted his arm.

He started down the steps and I followed in his wake, my eyes flitting from his shoulders (_oh god), _the floor, and back again.

When he reached the dungeon door and opened it. The pre-lesson chatter filtered through the open door. He paused in the doorway and turned back to me. He must've seen my confusion because he waved his arm in an over-the-top fashion, bowed down low and said, in a _very bad_French accent, "After you, mademoiselle!"

Ah, the joker was back.

"Thanks," I mumbled. I bit my lip, holding back the laughter and hurried through the door before it broke through.

The door shut behind us but I could feel his eyes burning into my neck. The blush crept back into my face.

"Kaela, there you are! And Mr Potter! I was wondering where you'd got to," Slughorn greeted us warmly but didn't rise from his seat at the front of the class (well… he couldn't), "you know how I feel about tardiness!"

"Yes sir, I'm sorry about that sir," I said as loudly as I dared.

The rest of the class stared at me.

Then at the boy behind me.

Then back at me.

_Oh no._

The infamous Hogwarts rumour mill was notorious for exaggeration, and a scandal of the girlfriend of one of the hottest guys in school walking into class late with said-boyfriend's 'fiercest rival' was going to be a hot topic.

I sat at the only table available, in the far left corner, unpacked my cauldron and books and let my dark hair form a curtain around my face. Unfortunately I heard the stool next to me scrap along the floor; he'd decided to sit next to me.

"Right then right then right then. Has everybody got their scales, cauldrons and books out? Yes? Ok then. Turn to page 393 in Advanced Potion-Making…" I stopped listening as Slughorn rambled on about the effects of not adding hellebore to a Draught of Peace.

Potions were the only lessons that I was away from Nathan in; he didn't get an 'Exceeds Expectations' on his potions OWL. He ranted and raved about it for hours but strangely enough did not protest me taking it. It might have been because I told him I wanted to be a Potions teacher when I was older – not that that was true. He can be sweet when he wants to be. When he wants something. I found, long ago, that to just go with it is better than to dig your heels in and fight. When you fight or disobey, bad things happen.

I screwed up my eyes, forcing the memories back. Reliving them in the middle of class was not a good idea. Tuning back in, I caught the end of the instructions Slughorn was giving.

"I've created a few potions for you to look at. If you'll look at the centre of the desks you'll see the one I have assigned to you. In the next thirty minutes I want you to identify it, find out what it does and write down a list of ingredients. This is a paired activity, "(cue collective grimace), "so you're to work with the person you're sat by. Right class, off you go," Slughorn slouched back in his seat, wheezing from the effort of talking.

The class erupted into the babble of smaller conversations, the groaning of moving chairs and the occasional puff of a potion.

Half an hour for that? Seems a bit much for a simple exercise to me. Maybe I should've listened. I stood and went to start working.

"So partner, what's first?"

I froze.

Paired work.

I had to work with James.


	2. Chapter 2 Formalities & Penalties

_**Out of the Shadows**_

_**~ Chapter 2 - Formalities and Penalties ~**_

I stared at him like a hippogriff caught in headlights.

He stared back expectantly.

"Um, I wasn't really… um… listening properly so… um…. I don't really know…" I trailed off.

Nice going, Kaela. Real smart. He's definitely going to like you after that display of your stupefying intellect.

He laughed, a sound that made the angels (not to mention the editors of _Witch Weekly _magazine) sigh.

"I'm only joking Kae-Kae. Can I call you Kae-Kae? Why am I asking? I'm gonna call you Kae-Kae from now on, ok Kae-Kae?" he said without drawing breath and gracing me with an almost _nervous_ smile that, in return, took mine away.

My eyebrows were lost in the tumbled Amazonian mass that was my fringe, never to return.

Wow. He was spectacular and amazing and fantastic and even when nervous (for some unknown mysterious reason – like how the giant squid came to be in the lake or how Filch was _still _alive even after all this time) he was still easily one of the most attractive boys to ever exist, he was on par of course with his dad (_swoon_), Oliver Wood (_double swoon_), and Nathan (_shudder_) and with all the lack of blood to my brain from all said swooning – and shuddering – I realised that he was looking at me expectantly. Oh yeah, he'd asked me a question.

"Um… sure?" I said unsurely.

"Ok," he said rubbing the back of his neck and squinting at the blackboard where Slughorn's messy scrawl told us the instructions, "so we're to… identify what's in this potion here and… write it down… hey Kae, can you go and get some parchment from the front? I'm fresh out."

I nodded quickly with a fierce blush.

I stumbled out of my seat and hurried my way across the classroom.

The stares and whispers as I walked by were hard to ignore.

'_Wonder why they were…' _

'_I heard that she watches Wizards XXX…'_

'_I bet she was in cohorts…'_

Really? Who says the word cohorts anymore? Anyway…

I'd never been talked about so much since I'd started going out with Nathan.

I quickly headed back when I'd gotten the fresh roll of parchment from the front, staying far away from the other students so I didn't have to listen to the idle – if rather creative – gossip that was now in circulation.

Tucking a stray bit of hair behind my ear, I retook my seat and tried to focus on the work at hand.

But it was rather easier said than done.

The voices and rumours were spreading through the class faster than wand-fire.

"Don't listen to that lot Kaela, they're all nosier than Snape," James' voice breathed against my ear.

"Wish they were more like Voldemort though," I muttered, more to myself than to him.

James' surprised laugh reverberated off the dungeon wall.

"What's going on Mr Potter!? Is everything ok? Is anyone dead?" Good ol' Sluggie, who'd fallen asleep after instructing the class, hadn't looked too happy at being woken up; he resembled the look of a dying constipated hyena.

"Oh, everything's fine professor, Kaela just said something funny is all," came James' cheery reply.

Slughorn looked mildly surprised – I never usually said anything at all in class, let alone anything funny – but said nothing else and promptly started snoring again.

James was still sniggering and I couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself for that. I, Kaela Davies, had made the school jokester laugh. If this was a TV show, I'd be fist pumping to myself right now.

"You're alright, you know that Davies?" he said.

I turned towards him and smiled tentatively.

His eyes widened and he turned and stared at the cauldron in front of us so hard you would have thought he'd burn a hole in it.

My smile faltered.

"We should um… get on with some work," he said after a beat.

I turned back around to face the desk.

Despite his little laughing session, and how nice he was before, it was obviously just formalities to him; he didn't really like me. How could he? I wrecked homes, I was Godzilla and Tokyo was marriage. I was an ugly reptile that broke everything good it'd ever had and everything good around it. I can't even get a good friend, let alone boyfriend; even my own brother hated me. Not many people can say that.

I bit my lip to stop the masochistic thoughts from continuing and threw myself into the mountain of work in front of us.

"Well, it's an Elixir to Induce Euphoria," he said, after looking at the bright yellow potion on the desk for a minute in awkward silence.

Oh, the irony.

I wrote it down on the parchment, swallowing back a sarcastic retort that was itching to jump off my tongue.

We lapsed into an even more awkward/tense silence than before.

James cleared his throat and I looked at him with an intensity that clearly shocked the both of us.

"I'm sorry, Kae, it's just that I- you know what never mind I'll just make it more awkward than the time my dad found out that Dumbledore actually kept him alive because he wanted him to die 'at the right time,'" he rambled on, even adding the bunny ears before flashing me a hesitant lopsided grin.

A giggle escaped before I could stop it and the relief on his face was palpable as we continued with the work in relative comfort.

As the lesson went on, I relaxed more and more, and found that I was actually rather enjoying myself.

He was everything everyone said he would be; smart, funny, talented,_ attractive_ …

I could see why Nathan hated him.

About 5 minutes before the end of the lesson, professor Slughorn woke up once more to set our homework – yay.

"Now class, I want you and your partner to work together to have an essay on the uses and side effects of the potions you've studied today. At least two sides of parchment- yes that means you too Thomas,"

Gregory Thomas, Hufflepuff extraordinaire, was a particularly lazy student who had groaned so loudly at the quantity required that Slughorn – partially deaf though he was – had picked up on it.

As my mind processed the assignment I realised something; _more partner work. _

My mind battled with different emotions at that thought:

Elation – the inner teenage girl that was having an oh-my-gosh-spending-time-with-an-attractive-boy-oh-yes-SCORE moment.

Nervousness – the _other_ inner teenage girl that was having an oh-my-gosh-spending-time-with-an-attractive-boy-oh-no-what-if-I-make-a-fool-out-of-myself freak out.

Dread – a voice that sounded suspiciously like Nathan's was telling me that there was no way in hell I could get alone time with this guy. Nathan would never allow it. 'Oh I just have to do _homework_ with your sworn enemy.' Oh yeah, that'd go down a treat. Like a broken computer flavoured Bertie Bott bean. He wouldn't even let me go to the stupid Slug-Club party. And oh god, what if he goes after James, tries to hurt him just because we had a stupid essay to write together. My heart tightened considerably at the thought of anyone (but especially James) getting hurt because of me. I would never forgive myself.

Besides, I had a boyfriend. Good girlfriends didn't get together with their boyfriend's foe to do homework. And I was a good girlfriend.

I was a good girlfriend.

"I'lldotheassignmentonmyownit'stotallyfinewithmebye," I rattled off, not looking at him.

Gathering my things in light speed, I placed the parchment with our work on Sluggie's desk and got out of there like Voldemort himself was chasing me.

It wasn't him – just his destroyer's son.

"KAELA! KAELA DAVIES! HEY WAIT KAE KAE! HEY C'MON STOP!"

But I didn't stop. I didn't even slow down. I let the thought of Nathan laying even a finger on James spur me on.

Even with the encouragement, I was no match for Gryffindor's Quidditch captain.

A hand coiled itself around my arm.

My heart powered into overdrive as I went falling back into my past…

"_You stupid bitch! Why would you think you could get away with that?" he said backhanding me around the face. _

_I collapsed to the cold stone floor with a scream like the dead weight I was. _

_He yanked me up to my feet by my hair. _

"_I don't know! Please just – stop. Please Nathan stop! You're hurting me! HELP ME SOMEONE PLEASE!"_

"_They can't hear you. I put a silencing charm on the room. Stupid bitch."_

_A flood of tears trampled their way down my face and I squeezed them closed, wishing myself away, to an alternate universe where my boyfriend wasn't beating me for merely talking to another boy._

_He got a hold of my arms and locked them in his vice grip. _

"_Look. At. Me," he hissed. _

_I shook my head, keeping my eyes fiercely shut. _

_Thisisn'trealthisisn'trealthisisn'treal-_

_My eyes flew open when he started to squeeze my neck. _

_I scratched and clawed but his boa-constrictor hands wouldn't let up._

_When spots filled my vision, he let go. I collapsed to the floor like a ragdoll._

_Oxygen, blessed oxygen, filled my lungs as I coughed and spluttered._

"_You listen when I speak to you, you filthy little skank," he sneered down at me, his eyes flashing with a malevolent joy, "You are mine. Understand? Mine. FOREVER."_

_He pulled out his wand and I just closed my eyes as he began to toss me about the room, trying to block out his laughs echoing off the empty classroom. _

_When he'd finished toying with me, he set me down on the floor gently, and wiped away my tears and held me while I sobbed, every bit of me aching._

"_Kaela, if you didn't _screw up_ so much I wouldn't have to punish you, oh shush now baby," he crooned, when I sobbed harder, "Now, let's give you something you can really remember, eh?" _

_He'd smiled down at me then, giving me a glimpse of the Nathan I'd fallen for. Slowly though, it transformed. _

_It transformed into something so _dark, _so _twisted_ I wondered whether he was actually human. _

_He pushed my robe sleeve up and used the tip of his wand to write something. _

_I didn't register what he was doing until the pain. The agonising burning kill-me-now please-stop pain. _

_I arched my back and a guttural scream was let loose. _

_When he'd finished, he stood up and left without saying another word and left me lying on the floor with my arm burning like it was on fire._

_With the word 'Mine Forever' etched into my flesh. _

_Forever._

James was looking at me with horror in his eyes as he let go on my arm.

Tears were falling viciously down my face. I wiped them away, embarrassed that he'd seen me cry. That he'd seen me weak.

I ran before he could say anything.


	3. Chapter 3 Scared of the Darkness

_**Out of the Shadows**_

_**~ Chapter 3 – Scared of the Darkness ~ **_

I sat stiffly next to Nathan, as usual, in the most comfortable arm chairs in the Gryffindor Common room. We'd just returned from the Great Hall. He, thankfully, seemed blissfully unaware of the James Potter incident a few days ago. Thank Merlin. I hadn't seen James since then; I was a master at being invisible, it was almost as though I had my own invisibility cloak. My ninja-esque behaviour had been successful thus far and I planned for it to stay that way.

If it weren't for Nathan, I'd be up in the dorm room, pretending I didn't exist. It made it a lot harder for James (a boy) to get to me (a girl) when I was up there.

He was surrounded by fervent 4th and 5th years, wanting to bask in his popularity. The girls were particularly eager and he accepted, if not encouraged, their affections right in front of me. Another way to show me that he practically owned me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

In front of a crowd, he practically ignored me.

As the minions laughed and joked with my boyfriend I drew closer to the fire, burning vivaciously in the wall in front of me. Pulling the sleeves of my jumper over my hands, I embraced the heat; letting it swallow me whole, before curling my feet up and opening the book I had on my lap (_The Hexed Games _– about a group of young witches and wizards who are selected for a tournament to fight to the death – a bit like the Tri-wizard tournament; it was quite entertaining) and let myself get sucked in.

"Hi, Kaela."

Between the small room and the silence in my mind, these spoken words were like a shout.

My head shot up, scanned the room and saw James Potter at the portrait, smiling faintly at me. His eyes though, they held the same emotion I couldn't decipher when we first met.

I smiled tightly back but quickly glanced at Nathan to make sure he hadn't seen. No. He was too absorbed in his audience.

When I looked back to the portrait hole, James was gone.

I swallowed the sudden and abrupt bout of sadness and continued reading.

"Hey, Kaela. Do you have a minute?" James appeared before me suddenly and I started.

Silence fell around the common room.

I was hyper-aware of the fact that Nathan was now sitting upright in his seat, glaring at James and me in turn, but my eyes didn't break from his.

"Um I-," I started but Nathan interrupted, "What for? Why'd you want to speak to my girlfriend for, _Potter_?"

"Only about the potions essay we need to do together, Nathan. Cool your beans." James rolled his eyes and Nathan's more extreme fangirls gasped in outrage at his lack of respect.

"Well, I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to do it with you, _right_ Kaela?"

"No I think _you_ don't want her to do it with me. What are you scared of? That I'm going to woo her and steal her off into the sunset while twirling my moustache? That's not my style mate, although…" James raised his eyebrows suggestively before rolling his eyes again.

He was goading Nathan and I of all people knew how dangerous that could be. But James was not afraid of him as I was. He had no reason to be.

"I told you, James, I can do it on my own and put both of our names on the top. It's fine. Honestly." I said almost inaudibly, trying to tell him silently that I wasn't worth it.

"See? The lady doesn't want or need your help Potter so back off," Nathan said with a bite so vicious even Fluffy would be scared.

"Whoa," James raised his hands in mock-defence, "save it for the Quidditch pitch, Piper! It turns out that I don't actually like cheating."

His tone held the threat that his words did not.

He knew about all the potions Nathan had took to get onto the Quidditch team and wasn't too scared to use it. He was the captain after all. Not being in the Quidditch team would _ruin_ Nathan.

James was smart.

Nathan gave me a look that promised violence later and spat out, "Ok then Kaela. Go and do your homework with pretty boy, go on. _Make your plans._"

I shied away from him and looked at James. He looked sorry for a minute before rearranging his features and saying to me, "In the library tomorrow at 6.30, yeah?" before disappearing into the masses that had congregated around the two Gryffindor boys' argument.

I stared after him for a while before returning to my book, feeling an excitement that I hadn't felt for years.

In Defence against the Dark Arts the next day, things were… tense to say the least. Nathan, James and I were all in this class, along with the other 6th year Ravenclaws that had passed to N.E.W.T level. We'd all arrived way before the teacher so Nathan claimed one side of me and James the other. I'd never been more awkward. Both of them proceeded to sit there in a tense angry silence, staring at an old travelling case by the professor's desk, covered in chains and padlocks which rattled incessantly every few minutes.

Finally, Nathan pulls a packet of _Wizard Wheeze's Puking Pastilles_ and offered one to me. I shook my head.

"I'm allergic, Nathan." I replied quietly confused. He knew this.

"It'll make the reaction _even more real_."

I see. He was punishing me, as well as testing me.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) James had been listening and decided to butt in and 'defend my honour.' Stupid Gryffindors and their chivalry. Or maybe he just couldn't pass up an opportunity to piss Nathan off more?

"If you want to ditch class, then do it. But you'd really risk your girlfriend's life just to miss what I find to be the most _stimulating,_" (sarcasm?) "classes we have? Priorities, man."

Nathan's eyes narrowed. He was backed into a corner; if he left or stayed, he'd be giving into James. He didn't like that one bit.

Not. One. Bit.

He shrugged, muttering something about 'getting out of this hellhole' and swallowed a puking pastille before kissed me roughly.

I heard James scoff and the scraping of his chair as he turned it away from this blatant assault on the PDA rule. What I wouldn't give to do the same.

Just as Nathan started to vomit in the aisle, Professor Creevey walked in and stopped rather quickly at the sight of him.

"Piper! Merlin's bright pink polka dotted bloomers, Piper! Not in my classroom! Oh for the love of- Finchley, Macmillan," calling on some Ravenclaws, "Get him down to the Medical Wing and away from my classroom!"

As they dragged my puking boyfriend away, Creevey stalked past our table, clearing up the mess with a wave of his wand. Good. It was starting to smell. I relaxed visibly and the Professor smiled at me.

Professor Dennis Creevey was a personal favourite teacher of mine. He was a few years younger than James' father and he was _fabulous_. He had a way with us students that other teachers didn't. And the passion he displayed for his subject was inspiring, a passion probably due to the fact that his brother was killed by dark magic during the Battle of Hogwarts. This was the one class I truly enjoyed, even if Nathan was in it. Not to mention he wasn't… _bad_ looking.

Besides me, as if in sync with my thoughts, James grunted, a very manly sound; it almost made me laugh (I had to bite my lip in an attempt to hold it in.) I couldn't shove it down completely and a small giggle escaped.

"Ok Mr Potter, you're not a caveman," the class snickered while James tightened his jaw but his cheeks were aglow with blush, "Ok everyone focus; settle down now guys. Today, we're going to be learning about boggarts. The union says that you have to learn this by textbooks." He said, hefting one of the chunky manuals to DADA into the air.

The class' dismay was evident and this was obviously what Professor Creevey was after from the delight that lit up his face.

"But I'm not part of any union and textbooks are boring, so I figured I'd teach you hands-on." He finished with a flourishing grin, dropping epic 2000-page monster that was '_Confronting the Faceless_' onto the desk with a wood-splintering crash.

The class erupted into whoops and cheers and claps and cries of happiness.

This is why I love Creevey.

We all stood in a single file line, facing the teacher's desk and the rattling box which we now knew held a boggart. The desks had been pushed to the side and the uniform rule relaxed immensely. The class had dealt with boggarts before, in our third year, but to make it more challenging, we had to use non-verbal spells.

I managed to worm my way to the back, but James just had to follow me. I was starting to wonder about this kid.

Professor Creevey stood on his desk at the front and called the class to order

"Right, we all know the spell? Say it out loud for me. 1, 2, 3."

"RIDDIKULUS!" the class exclaimed, eager to get on.

"Ok, as you know, the boggart has not yet assumed a form. When I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears. Be ready for that." This is the most serious I'd seen the professor.

"Good, ok. Let's begin!" he was cheerful again, at the flip of a switch.

He waved his wand and the trunk fell open and the mayhem began.

There were all sorts of things that came forward.

Kenny Donahugue's spider changed into a puppet.

Amelia Saunders turned a snake into an accordion.

Dominique Weasley had her sister Victoire embarrass herself by telling the class hilarious little secrets.

The whole class was in stitches at her secrets; we all remembered what _she_ was like at school before she left three years ago. What a breath of fresh air that was.

James Potter's boggart was interesting. Instead of any of the common fears like most of the class, Harry Potter appeared.

Harry freakin' Potter.

The Saviour of the Wizarding World, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the Master of Death, James Potter's father.

James was most afraid of his _father_?

Harry Potter didn't say anything but just stared at James with a look of raw, intense _disappointment_. James, for the first time, seemed to struggle with something.

Creevey was just about to step in when Harry Potter suddenly disappeared. In his place, were a long line of misfits; a mass of (mostly) gingers, blondes, dark haired, tall, short… then they all broke out into the Macarena.

Complete with lyrics.

The room detonated with laughter. Between my giggles, I realised that these were the Weasleys, James' family.

I looked at James stood just to the side of me and he looked exhausted but relieved. He caught my eye and came over to murmur in my ear, "That's not my imagination. One Christmas that actually happened,"

I threw my head back and laughed. Wow, their family sounded _awesome_.

I quickly sobered up.

Mine was so screwed up. I wish I had memories like that to remember when I felt sad. But my parents couldn't stand to be in the same room as each other anymore. My mom hasn't left the house in over a year. My dad was never around, always on some business trip somewhere or on holiday. That's why I chose to spend Christmas here at Hogwarts; I want to return and see what I'd done to my family. No wonder Theo hates me.

James was looking at me in concern.

I cleared my head and smiled weakly at him, telling him that I was fine. He didn't look convinced.

"Ok class, quiet down. Last person now. Come on, Kaela," Professor Creevey urged me forward.

I set myself into my spell stance, my wand raised in a tight grip in my left hand.

I breathed in once. Then out. I could do this.

The crate lid opened.

And the boggart contorted into Nathan.


End file.
